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Well, on January 22, I head to Mexico City. I’ve been doing a ton of research and the city seems extremely interesting, but terribly daunting. It’s huge, as pretty much everything I read and watch likes to tell me. Anyone who I talk to who has flown into Mexico City airport says that, well, again, it’s huge. For as far as you can see it’s city. And that city is covered in a lawyer of smog. And that city is chaotic and seemingly out of control. It’s beautiful. It’s dirty. It’s sinking. It’s growing. It’s modern. It’s ancient. It’s safe. It’s deadly. It’s rich. It’s poor. It’s huge.

I’ve been checking out things to do and there is definitely no shortage. The question is will I get to do half of the things I want to do before I have to leave. That remains to be seen. The other issue is that half of the things I want to see have names that I can’t pronounce! How the heck am I going to get to these places if I can’t even say the name of the places. My Spanish is rusty, and by rusty I mean that the only thing I can say in Spanish is “Por favor, Senior” and make sounds like that Mexican mouse in Loonie Toons cartoons. That is probably not enough to get me around.

I’ve been a very lucky dude. I’ve had a lot of opportunity to travel. And, now, for Christmas, my wife got me a trip to Mexico City. And, for some reason, I’m rather scared, which is bizarre. I have never been scared before going anywhere. I’ve roamed the streets of Cairo, Moscow, Berlin, Istanbul, London, Ankara, Plovdiv, St Petersburg, New York City, Minneapolis, Paris, Lyon, Prague and more. Never did I concern myself with the issue of safety. So, why the heck am I nervous about Mexico City? Have I been brainwashed? Why do I think Mexico City is so scary? Surely it can’t be any more worrisome than any of the above cities, right? Especially Cairo or Istanbul? Even areas of Moscow? Yet, I survived. I suppose we hear so much about violence in Mexico, what with the whole drugs thing and all. And Mexico City is one of the largest in the world with a massive gap between the rich and the poor. So, will I be okay? Assuredly so….right? I have nothing to really worry about…do I??

…and I have to wrap. Oh the yearly wrapping dilemma. I suck at wrapping presents. I can never get the paper on tight enough. They always just come across as though I have wrapped them in a lumpy blanket. You would think after 44 Christmases, I would have figured out how to wrap presents, but oooooooohhhhh no, you would be wrong. So wrong. I am about to embark on this exercise once again. I have much to wrap and little ability to actually do it in a manner that doesn’t make gifts look as unappealing as possible. Wish me luck!

I was writing for Reverb Press, and that took up quite a bit of my time. The website is a left wing news source based in the US. As a result, I had been writing an almost endless stream of anti-Trump regime articles. Believe me, I am NO fan of Trump. But, at the same time, you can only write about the absolute bizarre dysfunction that is going on in the US right now for so long before wanting to pull your hair out. Face it, that Trump guy is an idiot jerkface jerkoff. Delving into what he is doing on a daily basis can just be downright depressing. Did he say something stupid today? OF COURSE HE DID! That’s what he does, on a daily basis. I don’t need to write an article every day on the stupid stuff that he does. It’s a given that he’s going to do or say something stupid.

So, I have moved on. I appreciate everything Reverb did for me in the time I was with them. I wrote over 300 articles. That was a ton of experience. And I made some not bad money doing it. But, all good things eventually come to an end.

Now I have more time to write posts like this, that aren’t overly funny, but none the less…are posts.

In fact, I will be changing the nature of this blog. Ya, it’s called Laugh With Chris. But, I do still love to write about current events and such. So, I will do that. It might be funny. Buttttt, it might also not be so funny. Let that be a warning. If you are coming looking for a laugh, I might be too enraged by a certain topic in order to do that.

Ya, so, on Sunday I did a “show”. And by “show” I mean not really a show, if you know what I mean. I did comedy…in front of a group….of, like….people. It was for a Humanist, Atheist and Agnostic group which worked out well. They are my kind of people and all.

I haven’t really been doing stand-up much. I kind of thought of giving it up. Quite frankly, I’m just not all that good. I like to think I’m not bad, but, I don’t think I’m right about that, to be honest.

I had a bad experience last spring and it kind of turned me off of doing comedy. It still bothers me and kind of haunts me. I don’t have the thickest of skins at all which is bad if one wants to be a comedian, I must say. But I was left feeling like I didn’t want much to do with comedy anymore.

But, then, along comes Sunday and an opportunity and I took it. How did I do? I have no clue. I liked what I did. I felt it was one of the more refined sets that I have done. It came together well, I thought. I seemed to get some laughs but I don’t think I actually blew the audience away as a whole. But, it’s so hard to know. It’s hard to judge. But I did it. I got up there and did it and I felt not bad about it.

It seems that this whole comedy thing won’t go away. I’ve been doing it as an amateur now for a heck of a long time it seems. Like, 6 years. I’ve seen so many others get somewhere with it. They’ve worked hard at it and improved and taken themselves to the next level. I kind of just putter away at it. I go in fits and starts. This last 6 months has been the longest amount of time that I haven’t really done much comedy. Wait. Six months? No, make that 8 or 10 maybe. Okay, so, the last year hasn’t been overly active for me.

There is a comedy competition coming up in my ol’ hometown. I’m considering going for it. Wasn’t sure. But after doing Sunday, I think I might want to do it. Hmmmmm.

You know that nazi guy, Richard Spencer. You may remember him from his staring role as “Man who gets punched in side of head” in a YouTube video? Ya, I’m just wondering…did that work? Did he denounce nazism after that? Did he suddenly turn around and go, “Wow, thanks for that! That is just what I needed to convince me that being a nazi is bad!” Did it convert him to some kind of less annoying ideology?

No? It didn’t work? WHAT? I am shocked! You mean, that strategy wasn’t as effective as people are making it out to be?? WHO KNEW!?

I’ve written more seriously about the whole kurfuffel elsewhere, like, on my other more serious, and annoying blog jammed packed with with opinions and rants that no one actually reads. You can read it HERE.

I’m 42 years old now. I’m trying to plan a midlife crisis but it’s really hard to when I don’t know exactly when I’m going to die. What if I start a midlife crisis today and end up being hit by a truck tomorrow? Then it will have been a latelife crisis and I’ll look like a complete idiot. Or, if I start today and live until I’m 109, it will look like I really suck at math, and again I will look like a complete idiot. I need to time this right. If I start today then I must make sure I’m dead by this time in my 84th year of existence. That’s the only way I can see coming out of this ahead as a winner.